The power of the quill
Hungry? Porcupines not worth all the trouble getting it to table
By DENNIS APRILL, Outdoors Columnist
Lumbering at a speed approaching a snail’s pace, a porcupine waddles along, methodically crossing highways, trails and paths on its journey from one woodlot to another in search of food. In spring, that could be any vegetation from new plant sprouts to pine sap to hemlock bark.
For the most part, porcupines don’t have to move very fast; with their quills for armor, they have few predators to worry about. Their slow pace is the main reason old-time camping books recommend leaving them alone, unless you are lost in the woods. Then, these books claim, the porcupine is so slow, it can be killed with a pointed stick.
Noted outdoor writer Leonard Lee Rue III in his "Sportsman’s Guide to Game Animals" describes the taste of porcupine flesh as, "having the flavor suggestive of turpentine." So, the person who is lost and looking for food may be better off eating tree bark, instead.
As for myself, whenever I’ve been "turned around" in the woods, I have never come upon a porcupine.
To the contrary, the only porcupine I have killed is one that was gnawing on my house many years ago when my wife and I had just moved in. That first night, we awoke to a loud rumbling and sawing noise that seemed to vibrate throughout the house. We had visions of "poltergeists" until we finally realized what was causing the racket.
After days of unsuccessfully attempting to lure the porcupine away from the house with a salt-covered piece of firewood, I had to shoot it as a last resort. Not knowing what to do with the carcass, I buried it. The next day, I checked out the gravesite, only to find a pile of quills lying on the ground. Apparently, some other desperate animal needed an emergency meal.
The fisher, by the way, is one predator that has learned how to kill a porcupine. It grabs it by the nose, flips it on its back, then attacks the unprotected stomach.
There used to be a popular belief that porcupines shot their quills at an enemy. This is not the case, but they do stand up when stressed, just as human hair can rise in crisis situations, and that is what the porcupine quills actually are: modified hair that is grown and shed. These quills range between a half-inch and four inches long.
When attacked, porcupines face their attacker, lower their heads and lash out with their tails. Their quills have little barbs, and each quill expands after it enters the flesh of its attacker, making it difficult to remove. Pliers are usually needed to get quills out of a dog’s nose. Native Americans used porcupine quills for decoration and sewing.
Most porcupines weigh in at eight to 15 pounds, though they look bigger because of their quill covering. Porkies are rodents, so they must gnaw on a regular basis to keep their incisors — teeth that continue to grow throughout the animal’s life — from getting too long. This is why porcupines chew almost anything available, including wood covered with house paint and creosote.
Places where road salt use is high in the winter attract porcupines in the spring and put these slow moving creatures in harms way even in moderate-traffic areas. Because a porcupine’s eyesight is poor, the auto headlights have little impact on getting it to move.
Though they may not be the most attractive of animals, porcupines do have their place in the dreams of those who fantasize surviving in the wilderness with only porcupine meat for food.